I declare the games shut. Let the audit begin

This post is being written much before the Commonwealth Games closing ceremony that is bound to wow the nation, and even earlier than the self congratulatory and ‘you scratch my back, I scratch yours’, advertisements flood the media for the excellent conduct of the games and the best ever performance by Indian athletes.

While I too loved and enjoyed every Indian win, as also some other wonderful performances, I do not want to forget in this euphoria the massive misuse of funds and authority that has gripped this game’s organisation and games related infrastructure development. And before I go ahead, I want to reiterate that the excellent and heart-warming performances by our athletes, that all and sundry would now want take credit for, have been despite the system, not because of the system.

Let me get back to this post now. We may feel elated that we have proven everyone wrong and organised the event reasonably successfully, but it should under no circumstances be used as a tool to gloss over the gross misuse of funds and all else. This includes almost everything, from construction to overlays to ticket distribution to volunteer training contracts to games website to catering contracts and practically everything elsethat goes into organising events of such magnitude.

The more I move around, the more I discover the amazingly brazen manner in which the organisers have gone about their task. A very senior Income Tax official told me that the overlay (includes almost everything that is used to furnish the village, among others) work at the Games Village is an amazing story in deceit. Apparently, not only are the costs at which procurements have been made several times more than what it should be, but curiously, the quantities are not what is mentioned in the contract. And that is not all. Apparently, most of the stuff is not of the quality or brand mentioned, but a far inferior one. Knowing the pace at which some of those involved in this shameful act can move to hide their misdeeds, it would be great if the government freezes the movement of all overlay stuff in and out of the village before the games actually come to a close.

Ticket distribution has been another big scam. On the day of India-Pakistan hockey game that the Indians won handsomely, two youngsters went hunting for some elusive tickets. They started from pleading with the policemen at the venue to spectators in the queue if they had extra tickets and finally to the OC Headquarters. There, they found some officious looking character who said he would get them the tickets. He asked them to wait and came back in a bit and handed them two tickets of Rs 100 and charged just Rs 200. Sounds so sports friendly except the tickets had "COMPLIMENTARY" and “Void if sold” printed prominently on them. These clearly were the free tickets meant for distribution to schools, as the government had decided, but the officials were busy selling them to sports lovers.

Apart from that, there are stories about people, who are not even in the country, but are the favourites of a few in the powerful positions in the Organising Committee, being paid for the hard work they are doing for the successful organisation. The list of mismanagement, misappropriation of funds, nepotism, favouritism, goes on and on.

In all this, one silver lining (apart from our Athletes’ performance) has been that the city of Delhi has benefited in terms of much needed infrastructure. But the issue once again is not whether it was needed or not, but whether it is of the quality that it should have been and the cost. If a particular facility can be created for X, why would I spend 10X and still get quality that is not worth more than half X? And as I have said in the past, making Kalmadi or some others the scapegoat would be wrong. These guys need to be taken to the cleaners, sure, but a lot of others including those from the Delhi government and sports ministry and the urban development ministry need to be given the stick as well.

I would be the happy with a spectacular closing ceremony, but happier still if the President, as Vivek Thaokar commented in response to my previous post, while declaring the games close, also says “Let the Audits begin”.

Author

Rajesh Kalra is the Chief Editor of Times Internet and business head for the non-English languages properties. A journalist for two decades, he also tried his hands at entrepreneurship in between. Although he has written on several subjects, he has a weakness for IT and telecommunications. He is an avid sportsman, a trained high-altitude mountaineer, a passionate mountain biker and a marathoner. His blog, Random Access, will cover issues that take into account these varied interests.
Follow @rajeshkalra on Twitter

Rajesh Kalra is the Chief Editor of Times Internet and business head for the non-English languages properties. A journalist for two decades, he also tried h. . .

From around the web

More from The Times of India

Comments

Top Comment

()

Author

Rajesh Kalra is the Chief Editor of Times Internet and business head for the non-English languages properties. A journalist for two decades, he also tried his hands at entrepreneurship in between. Although he has written on several subjects, he has a weakness for IT and telecommunications. He is an avid sportsman, a trained high-altitude mountaineer, a passionate mountain biker and a marathoner. His blog, Random Access, will cover issues that take into account these varied interests.
Follow @rajeshkalra on Twitter

Rajesh Kalra is the Chief Editor of Times Internet and business head for the non-English languages properties. A journalist for two decades, he also tried h. . .